Oh man, another jazz legend dead. I remember this cat growing up in New York with his Jazzmobile giving concerts in the area and in high schools. I do think he had something to do with the jazz revival in DC because of his association with the Kennedy Center. Rest in Jazz brother...
"Billy Taylor, one of the most versatile, influential and revered figures of the jazz world, who left his mark as a pianist, composer, educator and broadcaster and made Washington's Kennedy Center one of the nation's premier concert venues for jazz, died Dec. 28 at a hospital in New York. He was 89 and had a heart attack."
"Dr. Taylor, who grew up in the District and derived his early musical education from local teachers and from jazz shows at the Howard Theater, had a career that spanned nearly 70 years. He collaborated with almost every significant performer in jazz, from Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker to Wynton Marsalis, but he had an even rarer gift for explaining his music and drawing people to it."
From the Washington Post
